Dave George: For Felipe Alou, a life well lived in South Florida

Dave George

Thursday

Apr 12, 2018 at 12:01 AMApr 12, 2018 at 10:09 PM

Felipe Alou used to live near Tamarind Avenue in West Palm Beach. For a man who didn’t make much money managing a minor-league baseball team and needed to be within walking distance of the old Municipal Stadium, it was just right.

These days, Felipe, baseball royalty by any measure, docks a boat at Gateway Marina near the Boynton Inlet because "in 10 minutes I can be fighting a wahoo," and that, too, is just right.

You may not get every detail of Felipe’s long connection with Palm Beach County in the newly released autobiography "Alou: My Baseball Journey," but there is so much more in there to savor.

How he signed with a New York Giants scout for $200 because that amount would settle up his family’s burdensome tab at the grocery store.

How he became the first player born and raised in the Dominican Republic to advance to the major leagues, opening the gate for a flood of stars that includes Hall of Famers Juan Marichal, Pedro Martinez and Vladimir Guerrero, a flood that has yet to crest.

How he was teammates with Willie Mays and Hank Aaron and, even more unlikely, how Felipe briefly shared the same outfield with his younger brothers Matty and Jesus in a San Francisco Giants game. They even batted consecutively in one inning.

We’re just scraping the surface here in the life of a 82-year-old pioneer who became the first Dominican manager in the major leagues, and a proud father who counts among his offspring a son, Moises Alou, who won a World Series with the Florida Marlins, and another son, Luis Rojas, who is managing the Mets’ Class AA team where Tim Tebow plays.

Let’s concentrate, though, on the way that Felipe has blended into our community. In the living room of his home west of Boynton Beach, we talked of his 54 years as a Palm Beach County resident, and laughed about friends he has met with no information exchanged about the fact that he twice led the National League in hits and went on to become Barry Bonds’ manager.

"I was stopped not too long ago by the Marine Patrol off Boynton Inlet," Felipe said, "and the officer looked at me and said ‘Are you Mr. Alou?’ I said yes and he said ‘You’re the man I helped pull up a snapper at Lake Worth Pier, and you shared half of that fish with me.’

"That fellow must have been 12 years old on the day that he was talking about, and he still remembered."

For seven years, Felipe managed the old West Palm Beach Expos of the Class A Florida State League, at first in 1977 and again from 1985-91. On most days, by the time his players arrived at the stadium for home games Felipe had already been to the Lake Worth Pier for an early morning swim in the ocean and a couple hours of fishing.

"I’d head home for lunch and then get to the ballpark around 2," Alou said. "That’s when I would jog all around the back fields and get ready for the children, the players, to come for their workout and then the game."

One of those 22-year-old children was Randy Johnson, who struck out 133 batters and walked 94 in 120 innings of work as a West Palm Expo in 1986. Alou remembers getting a late-night phone call requiring him to catch a cab for the police station and fish $100 out of his own pocket to pay the future Hall of Famer’s bail. Randy’s crime? Riding a scooter on a public street with a suspended California driver’s license.

"I was overmatched in that job," Felipe said of his early days in managing. "It’s really not that easy, being given a group of men from different nationalities and races and being responsible for teaching these young fellows to play baseball and to be a man. A minor-league manager really needs to be like a father figure."

Felipe’s right elbow is pretty much shot from all those years of pitching batting practice in West Palm Beach.

"We didn’t have a pitching machine," he said. "I’ve had two surgeries done on it, and back then it was different. They’d leave a scar on there that looked like a strike from a machete. But it’s still good enough for me to raise a glass of wine, or catch a fish."

Always it comes back to fishing. When Felipe’s playing career ended, he jumped at the chance to manage in West Palm Beach. He already knew the area from spring training here with the Braves and the ocean was close and the weather was hot, just like the Dominican Republic. Even now, the promise of an easy two-hour flight from Miami to Santo Domingo tells Felipe he is right where he needs to be.

When Felipe was hired to manage the Montreal Expos, he was told by Jim Leyland, his old Florida State League managing peer, "Now you’ll finally be able to buy a boat."

The folks down at Tuppens Marine and Tackle in Lake Worth are grateful. Through the years, Felipe has bought four boats there, each time trading in an old one for a new one. These days it’s a 22-foot Sailfish he steers out the inlet and up to 15 miles offshore, usually by himself.

"I’m in the ninth inning now," he said. "A man my age doesn’t write a book to make money or to try to get famous."

He writes it to tell a story, and it’s fun to think that so much of it has been lived right here.

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